James Madison himself, father of the Constitution, warned against convening a second constitutional convention. When he learned that New York and Virginia were actively calling for an Article V convention in 1788, just months after ratification of the Constitution, he was horrified. He counseled: "If a General Convention were to take place for the avowed and sole purpose of revising the Constitution, it would naturally consider itself as having a greater latitude than the Congress.... It would consequently give greater agitation to the public mind; an election into it would be courted by the most violent partisans on both sides … [and] would no doubt contain individuals of insidious views, who, under the mask of seeking alterations popular in some parts … might have the dangerous opportunity of sapping the very foundations of the fabric...."

ALEC passed a resolution supporting the COS resolution, and Republicans joined the fray. Thankfully, the 1995 attempt was defeated, again because patriots were alert. (As an aside, the Governor of New Mexico was then Gary Johnson, Libertarian Candidate for President in the 2012 race, and he backed the COS resolution.)

The CSG is a private, international organization funded originally with Rockefeller money through the Spelman Fund (John D. Rockefeller's wife, Laura Spelman)(see CSG's Book of the States Volume I - 1935) and currently receives millions of dollars from states' dues - our tax dollars. As early as 1935, the CSG had already called for gun control and the creation of 10 REGIONS for America. Today, America has 10 Federal Regions from which the federal government controls our money and therefore our states, counties, townships and municipalities. Regionalism is Communism! The money from the block grants coming into the states is fed into the Federal Regional Planning Commissions, HUD, HEW, EPA, Departments of Labor, Commerce, DOE, etc., which in turn doles it out to our local governments in return for their "obedience" in passing whatever laws and ordinances the federal planners dictate (think Agenda 21, Smart Growth). If they do not comply, money is withheld until they do.

Here we are, eighteen years later, and they're still at it. In this present assault on our Constitution the roles are reversed: ALEC wrote the model resolution; and the NCSL is solidly behind the scheme, as indicated by the letter that was sent to every Governor, Senate President, and House Speaker in this country by Florida Senator Jeff Atwater, from the NCSL. So, let's take a closer look at ALEC.

American Legislative Exchange Council

The subject of ALEC deserves a three-part article alone, but for the sake of brevity, we'll just give an overview. ALEC was founded in 1973 by Paul Weyrich, Grand Poobah of the secretive Council for National Policy, founder of Free Congress Foundation, and the Heritage Foundation. ALEC is a corporate bill mill. It's not just a lobby or front group, ALEC is one of the most powerful unelected councils in the country.

Corporations hand to state legislators their "wish lists" of legislation to benefit their bottom lines. The membership of ALEC is 98% corporate and the corporate membership is the one that funds almost all of ALEC's operations. They have bought their way into the process by which corporate lobbyists and special interest reps vote with elected officials to approve "model" bills. ALEC's legislative leaders are responsible for getting the bills introduced and passed. They introduce and carry the bills in their statehouses as their own brilliant ideas. As an example, the immigration bill, SB1070, was written by ALEC and carried by Russell Pearce, word for word, to Arizona. Private prison corporations had a huge part in ALEC's crafting of SB1070.

Richard Mellon Scaife has allegedly funded ALEC to the tune of more than 7 million dollars. One must remember that Scaife funds both sides of the aisle and is connected to Rockefeller (Chase Mellon Bank). Scaife also had a full page ad in the WSJ stating why it was so important for taxpayers to fund Planned Parenthood and what they do for American women. The danger in the ALEC organization is that its leadership apparently wants to rewrite our Constitution, and they claim a membership of 2,500 plus of our 7,500 legislators. Members of ALEC even include the Church of Scientology, which has spoken at ALEC meetings.

Sometime in the mid-1990s, the Church of Scientology became one of ALEC's underwriters, for the apparent purpose of interacting with state lawmakers on mental health-care issues. Here's an excerpt from a 1998 fundraising letter written by Bruce Wiseman, the president of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights International, (CCHR) a highly controversial anti-psychiatry front-group of the Church of Scientology. Wiseman writes. "ALEC is a national organization made up of legislators from every state as well as some federal legislators who meet and draft model legislation for every state. The return for that has been enormous! CCHR has worked its way up the conditions at ALEC and recently got an article published by ALEC in opposition to mandated mental-health parity, which went to key state legislators who deal with health issues in their respective states. In addition, the ALEC membership has opened the door to meeting numerous legislators and other opinion leaders from around the country."

Back in 1992, when Ross Perot came on the scene, he was gung-ho for a Con-Con. He stated emphatically that we needed a parliamentary government (same as ALEC's founder, Paul Weyrich) and bragged that "his people" could get the remaining states needed for a Con-Con "in their sleep." Thank God, we found out and it was stopped.

The legislators never disclose that corporations wrote and vetted these bills along with fellow politicians behind closed doors at ALEC meetings. So, everyone who is a member of ALEC is influencing not only state bills, but likely most federal bills as well, written by corporations with vested interests...along with lobbyists and state representatives.

ALEC is a longtime supporter of a Constitutional Convention. A 43 page handbook, written by Robert G. Natelson, entitled: "Proposing Constitutional Amendments by a Convention of the States," was provided to their mostly-republican members, along with model legislation to carry back to their states. The booklet is full of spins, lies, and misdirection. It claims the states must exercise control as given to them by the founders that they must move quickly, that state legislatures will have complete control over the process, and will answer to the state legislatures they represent. This is far from the truth. As we discussed and made clear in Part 1 of this article, there is no provision in Article V empowering state legislators to choose the delegates to a Constitutional Convention or to "limit" the scope of a Con-Con. There are no rules, no regulations, and certainly no instructions.

Henry Hazlitt

Henry Hazlitt, American economist, (1894-1993), was the former economic advisor to pro-Constitutional Convention, National Taxpayer's Union (NTU), headed by James Dale Davidson. Davidson's NTU was instrumental in promoting a Con-Con in the early 80s and he claimed he gave $100,000 every year to the cause. Hazlitt was a renowned conservative, and he wrote a book which he republished in 1974 called, "A New Constitution Now." This book makes the argument for replacing America's presidential system of government with a parliamentary one resembling Great Britain's. I thought we fought a revolutionary war to escape that form of government!

Hazlitt's book is extremely dangerous inasmuch as Hazlitt states things like, "an amendment could be proposed that would strike out everything after "We the people," and that, of course, includes the Bill of Rights. He was suggesting that everything after "We the people" on down be scrapped and rewritten, which is amazing, as this document has provided more human dignity and freedom for more people than any other in recorded history.

Other suggested improvements by Hazlitt include making it easier to amend our Constitution by adopting the Swiss and Australian procedure. Another would be to restrict Presidents to a single term. A third would be to abolish the office of Vice President. A fourth would reconstitute the Supreme Court, with each governor appointing a justice with the approval of his state legislature. (Think about that with these neo-conservative Trotskyite governors we have on the right, like Tennessee's Haslam, and the full-blown communists on the left, like New York's Cuomo.) The neo-conservative Trotskyite rightwing loved Hazlitt and still quote him.

In the final part of this series, we'll discuss Rexford Guy Tugwell, and the Newstates Constitution. Tugwell was a man far ahead of his time. He deplored private property rights, declared our 1787 Constitution to be outmoded and archaic, and would have loved United Nations Agenda 21/Smart Growth/Sustainability.

In fact, in 1938 Tugwell was appointed as the first director of the New York City Planning Commission. New York's reformist mayor, Fiorello LaGuardia, created the commission as part of a city charter reform aimed at reducing corruption and inefficiency. The Planning Commission had relatively limited powers – all actions needed approval from the legislative Board of Estimate. Rexford Tugwell tried to assert the commission's power. He tried to retroactively enforce nonconforming land uses, despite a lack of public or legal support. His commission sought to establish public housing at moderate densities, yet repeatedly approved FHA requests for greater density. Robert Moses killed Tugwell's proposed fifty-year master plan with a fiery public denouncement of its open space protections.

Tugwell's book, "The Emerging Constitution," makes it clear where he stood. He states on page 593, "The other considerable change (to the Constitution) is the consolidation of states into fewer, and it is hoped, more effective regional groupings, thus at last organizing as one system rather than a confused fifty."

Also on page 593 is this statement about the proposed Newstates constitution, "It will be noticed that the general emphasis on the protection of individuals from the exercise of governmental powers has been supplemented with a list of responsibilities."

Comments

Kelleigh Nelson has been an investigative researcher since 1975. Formerly an executive producer for three different national radio talk show hosts, she was adept at finding and scheduling a variety of wonderful guests for her radio hosts. She and her husband live in Knoxville, TN, and she has owned her own wholesale commercial bakery since 1990. Prior to moving to Tennessee, Kelleigh was marketing communications and advertising manager for a fortune 100 company in Ohio. Born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, she was a Goldwater girl with high school classmate, Hillary Rodham, in Park Ridge, Illinois. Kelleigh is well acquainted with Chicago politics and was working in downtown Chicago during the 1968 Democratic convention riots. Kelleigh is presently the secretary for Rocky Top Freedom Campaign, a strong freedom advocate group.

The original constitution applied only to wealthy landowners; today's constitution applies only to wealthy corporations.

SOCIALISIM-MUSTGO!

very informative article even without reading the preceding parts ,once again re-confirms there have always been many organizations and funds hard at work to destroy the perfect order of our founding documents . serpents in the rocks I say, I hope they all rot in hell for eternity, these disease carrying vermin should be hunted to extinction!

shawn_von_socialist

Every constitution, then, and every law, naturally expires at the end of nineteen years. If it be enforced longer, it is an act of force, and not of right. It may be said, that the succeeding generation exercising, in fact, the power of repeal, this leaves them as free as if the constitution or law had been expressly limited to nineteen years only. In the first place, this objection admits the right, in proposing an equivalent. But the power of repeal is not an equivalent. It might be, indeed, if every form of government were so perfectly contrived, that the will of the majority could always be obtained, fairly and without impediment. But this is true of no form. The people cannot assemble themselves; their representation is unequal and vicious. Various checks are opposed to every legislative proposition. Factions get possession of the public councils, bribery corrupts them, personal interests lead them astray from the general interests of their constituents; and other impediments arise, so as to prove to every practical man, that a law of limited duration is much more manageable than one which needs a repeal.

-Thomas Jefferson

freedomringsforall

Our country and this world are spinning into insanity
on purpose.

The Internationalist have their plan, the Islamists have their plan, and the
commie/socialists have their plan.

For the moment they all align with intent so they are all using each other to
create absolute worldwide chaos and each leader propped up by these groups is
out for what they want and obama is good at that game.

The purpose for chaos and death is to justify clamp down, arms confiscation,
and in general steps toward dictatorial powers for these groups.

These groups just like the axis powers in World War 2 will work together on a
worldwide basis to make these realities come to fruition.

Just as the axis powers in world war two believed that they could rule the
world in sync after dominating it they each all also secretly believed that
they could overcome the other in the end and become the one true leader of the
entire world, so do these new axis powers

believe the same.

I believe the internationalists believe as Hitler did that with an overwhelming
political power, economic power, and military power of a united Europe and the
Americas in their pocket and with deep inroads (politically and economically)
into the African continent and the mid asia, and asia proper continents that
they will eventually come out on top as the unified world leaders and thus
enforce the one world governance that they have been developing onto the world.

We are one step away from a total dictatorship.

The 2nd amendment.

http://profiles.google.com/vagnsorensen Vagn sorensen

What good is it to amend the constitution when at the present time it is not being followed?
Before a document is amended it has to first be established as having validity!

TheTexasCooke

They can have a thousand Constitutional Conventions and, unless the new document is ratified by the States, it doesn't matter. This is what Article 7 of the current Constitution says:

The Ratification of the Conventions of nine States, shall be sufficient for the Establishment of this Constitution between the States so ratifying the Same.

So X-number of States would have to ratify it to make it valid....and even then, it would only apply to the States that actually ratify it....or, I suppose, we could have another shooting war over it like the previous "War Between the States". This is another straw-dog guys....

gamer2012

The main problem this country has is Muslims, who aim to implement their supremacy through Sharia and bury our Constitution, spreading the murder and oppression they cause throughout the world to our land. I can't take anyone who talks about threats to our Constitution seriously if they do not talk about this most dire and imminent threat.

As far as Constitutional Amendments are concerned, a vote of two-thirds in both Houses of Congress, then ratified by three quarters of the state legislatures, are required.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_NLORN6B3ZNGCAJTFHWWFUUEY4Q jong

I still say that a Constitutional Convention can be held and held down to things that do need be done. We have such a over run of Obama and his marxism there must be some punishment or control mechanism according to the Constitution as it stands now to do it.

TexasOlTimer

We have a Constitution and it is set up to be amended as needed over time. We have done that numerous times. To have a new one put in place would mean the end of the United States as we know it and our freedoms lost. There is no reason to hold a convention to have a new constitution - that will only result in our loss of free speech, to bear arms, freedom of religion and all the other freedoms we currently have that are being curtailed. We need only elect representatives that will actually follow our current Constitution!

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_NLORN6B3ZNGCAJTFHWWFUUEY4Q jong

Just remember that the first one gave us most of our rights. And James Madison gave us a record of it

http://FrontPorchPolitics.com/ Tim Brown

Actually jong, the Constitution didn't give us our rights. They were said to be from our Creator. The constitution was written to protect them. Big difference:) Additionally there are rights we have that are not listed in the Constitution as well....such as the 9th Amendment:

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be
construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_NLORN6B3ZNGCAJTFHWWFUUEY4Q jong

And you sound like you favor Jefferson(nothing wrong with that). However, It could then be pointed out that while we had them all the time. It took the formalization of the Constitution to ensure by law those rights given to us by declaring such. As for the amendments they are at least in my mind part and particle of the Constitution It brings up the question of Jefferson (about the ninth) that why put in something that can not be done?? Madison basically said he wanted to cover all bases.:)